Self-Hosted · Coop Campaign
Still addicted to the late-'90s shooter nostalgia – a vintage Unreal Gold coop
Connecting…
The setup
Twenty-eight years ago, the prison transport Vortex Rikers went down over Na Pali. You wake up in the wreckage – no briefing, no weapon, just a flashlight and the distant sound of something Skaarj-shaped moving through the corridors. That opening is one of the defining moments of '90s PC gaming, and this server exists to relive it, together.
It runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2, a computer roughly the size of the game's original install disc, held together with JCoopZ for proper coop admin tooling and AkimboMM for some good old dual-wielded excess. No anti-cheat, no matchmaking, no monthly patch notes. Just the campaign, played at whatever pace a few friends and a slow evening allow.
Expect ancient Nali ruins, Skaarj ambushes in narrow corridors, and the occasional custom weapon dropped in via admin command when the difficulty curve gets unfair.
What's running
Proper server-side admin tooling – player-targeted item grants, kicks, and the housekeeping a coop server actually needs.
Dual-wield your AutoMags into MultiMags. Four ammo types, one alt-fire away from ChAoSS.
A modified Raketenwerfer and Schrotflinte, handed out by the admin when the Skaarj start winning.
Field recordings
Original score
Alexander Brandon · Michiel van den Bos · Andrew Sega · Dan Gardopée – tracker music, 1998.
Fire up Unreal Gold (227 patch required), point it at the address below, and see what's left of the crew.
vortex2.ipv64.net:7777